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Filmmakers with local ties to receive grant funding for upcoming projects

May 20, 2018 | 4:24 PM

Two film makers with ties to central Alberta have been chosen to receive $10,000 grants to help them produce their digital short film projects planned to be released this fall.

Kris Kuhn and Annette Reilly will each be receiving a $10,000 STORYHIVE grant to help produce their films Tommy Tremor and A Typical Fairytale respectively.

The pair and their teams were chosen out of 300 entries and were among the top 47 awards from B.C. and Alberta. Once complete, their films will be shown on Telus Optik TV On Demand and STORYHIVE.COM.

Since 2014, STORYHIVE has provided funding, distribution and customized career training for content creators and screen-based storytellers across B.C. and Alberta to hone their skills, take risks and bring the projects they care about to life.

Kris Kuhn is the Writer and Director for Tommy Tremor, a film described as being about an infamous gunslinger in the apocalyptic Wild West who wanders the prairie aimlessly, smoking marijuana, drinking when the occasion calls for it and frequenting various brothels strewn throughout the territories.

Originally from Oyen, Alberta, the 28-year-old Kuhn says he sees the film as an intro to an episodic story.

”I’d like to see it lead into a series but essentially it’s just sort of a fun western set in the post-apocalyptic world,” he explains. “Your Mad Max’s, I love kind of old, humourous spaghetti westerns like They Call Me Trinity, just a ton of different stuff.”

Although surprised to receive the STORYHIVE grant, Kuhn says he and his crew are excited to see the project evolve into a legitimate production which is due to be finished by August 7.

“I can pay everybody, make sure everybody is comfortable and we have the time and the resources we need to get what we need,” states Kuhn. “We’re currently in pre-production and casting comes next, then the shooting. We’re hoping to shoot June 18-21 around Red Deer and we’re actually looking for some farm land right now that we can go out and shoot in and hopefully near Wayne, Alberta in the badlands.”

As a full-time lead editor for social media marketing and advertising company Are You Social Corp in Red Deer, the recent grad of RDC’s Motion Picture Arts Program hopes audiences enjoy the action-adventure-comedy that is Tommy Tremor.

Elsewhere, Annette Reilly’s A Typical Fairytale is described as a drama about a young 20 something couple who find each other one night in a bar. They seem to live happily ever after until the birth of a daughter who later admits she is not a she at all but dealing with gender identity issues.

The story of love, acceptance and inclusivity according to Reilly is actually fun because it’s all in rhyme.

“It’s highly stylized and it’s just a really fun, quirky piece,” says Reilly. “This script came to me almost two years ago and I read it and it just really touched me in a very deep way and I thought people need to see this. This needs to be out there and I took it under my wing and started developing it.”

With roughly 20 years of film industry experience to her credit, Reilly is producing, directing and starring in A Typical Fairytale.

“I have headed several projects where people have tried to do similar things and I tell people ‘No, you can’t do this’,” laughs Reilly. “But for some reason there’s just something inside my gut that’s saying I need to do that on this project, so it’s kind of my baby now.”

Originally from the Pine Lake area south of Red Deer, Reilly who now resides in Vancouver, B.C. says she’s currently acting in a T.V. series yet to air and coordinating several other projects.

However, the funding grant from STORYHIVE will keep her and her team busy this summer.

“It’s really hard to get funding for independent films,” states Reilly. “So I thought when the right one comes up and the timing is right between my other jobs, I’m just going to go for it. I’ve really wanted to get this project funded and I’m absolutely thrilled that STORYHIVE has decided to fund this one for us.”

Reilly says A Typical Fairytale is currently in pre-production and will be shot in Vancouver in late June with plans to be finished by August 7.

Following that, she plans to enter the film into numerous film festivals across the globe and hopes it becomes a point of discussion for those who see it and to talk about what identity and expectations actually mean.

“Overall, the message behind this is, we have to let our own expectations die sometimes in order to allow other people to thrive.”